Two Worlds - Hands On @ IGN

April 25th, 2007, 14:18

A two-page hands-on preview of Two Worlds is up at IGN, made up of three separate pieces from different IGN editors. From the article, the combat sounds underwhelming but other aspects sound quite positive. Here&#39;s a snip:

One cool discovery I came across was the ever-handy trap. You can buy a standard steel bear trap for fairly cheap from a merchant. Combine some venom from a snake and perhaps the deadly properties of a boar tusk and you have a potent weapon. Lay down a trap and then start a fight with some jerk guard who would normally cream you. When he charges, back up so that he runs into the trap. While he struggles to pull himself free of the poisonous contraption, you can lay some serious smack down. Now imagine entering a city and laying down a number of dangerous traps and starting a ruckus. A good time can be had by any nefarious adventurer with a little imagination.

The attacks are simple button mashing, but the animations and patterns are unique for each type of weapon so slashing a cyclops with a sword looks different than bashing a wolf with a club. Combat on both PC and 360 is still a little rough, despite being just two months from release. Though it is always fun to hack and slash against half-dressed bandits (apparently Two Worlds' fashion trend is strapping, topless summer wear), it can feel a bit chaotic at times as there's no lock-on for melee combat and the camera is still a bit twitchy. All defensive moves are automatic and based on invisible dice rolls, so your only concern during combat is swinging like a madman.

Spells are more forgiving and offer some nice visual effects that may sway many to focus on wizardry over sword-wielding. Since magic automatically locks onto the target you're facing, it feels a little more grounded and refined than melee combat at the moment.

Wow that sounds bad … unless you play a mage like me! Seriously, though, I like to mix it up and hope they get a handle on that. In a combat-centric game, if the combat is crappy … then what is left?

Admittidly, I don't mind a bit of button-mashing. It's far easier to stand there and whack the opponent to the ground than dance around swinging like a loon trying to hit the thing. And, after struggeling with user-determined blocking in Oblivion, I'ld be glad to see it go auto.

One of the more interesting things mentioned is the ability to wipe out a race/animal thanks to a lack of respawning. Re: getting rid of all the bunnies…
The world is going to look kinda empty if their aint no bunnies hopping about.

Originally Posted by 15th
One of the more interesting things mentioned is the ability to wipe out a race/animal thanks to a lack of respawning. Re: getting rid of all the bunnies…
The world is going to look kinda empty if their aint no bunnies hopping about.

But still. This is something that I lack in many RPGs. When you've killed all the enemies in an area then they're dead and don't appear a couple of hours later again. I miss this sense of completion and that the world has become safer after your massive monster-killing-spree.
Though for the sake of variation then the animal races ought to respawn so that the landscape wouldn't become completely empty.

I like the way it's done in Gothic, where the creatures do not respawn with the exception of a few at set points during the game (between chapters a certain amount of creatures spawn at specific locations to fill it a bit up again, but not as much as it was originally). Personally I can't stand killing the same creatures over and over in the same area.

That was part of my concern, that the world would become a rolling plane with plants and rocks scattered about. I'ld also wonder if it would effect the "Go kill me some Rats" type of quests. If I have wiped them all out, will I not be able to get the random collectiable item?

I do like the idea though, it just sounds like it needs some balance. Allowing animals to respawn rather NPCs would be good. As long as it isin't immediatly after an area has been cleared.

Originally Posted by titus
It interested me since the beginning and it still does. Can't wait to tru the demo out
And it also has mounted fighting. No game has had that in a decent way yet as far as I remember

As of now there isn't any demo planned and there won't be one available before the release. But perhaps later on.

EDIT: oh, I just saw this post on another forum by someone who has played the closed beta:

There will be respawn, partially. All killed chars/animals are coming back as ghosts. This happens only in the night. They are dropping nothing, but you can use them to level up.

I'm not sure, but animals like wolfs are respawning also on a regular base.

I'm personally thrilled of this feature Its awesome if I could stick to my favorite long sword…like "yeah thats my old silver sword, we have seen a lot and i would never trade it for another…" Sort of like jedi's lightsaber, a very personal thing :-)

There's no stacking limit (and this works for armor as well), so you can conceivably build the power of a club to mighty proportions. You may even find yourself seeking out enemies with the same shield or pants and killing them just for the stacking bonus.

There's no stacking limit (and this works for armor as well), so you can conceivably build the power of a club to mighty proportions.

edit: I re-read the preview and that made it clear to me. That system sounds really weird to me, and doesn't make much sense to me, for example can you go into a shop and buy 10 plain long swords which then makes your plain long sword better than a magical long sword? I would have preferred they just did it how Gothic 2 did it.

It's just a design concept they've decided on. Instead of selling all those dozens of Long Swords you found for 1GP each, you can "stack" them on top of your existing long sword, with each extra one on the stack making it a little bit more powerful.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
It's just a design concept they've decided on. Instead of selling all those dozens of Long Swords you found for 1GP each, you can "stack" them on top of your existing long sword, with each extra one on the stack making it a little bit more powerful.

Originally Posted by bjon045
edit: I re-read the preview and that made it clear to me. That system sounds really weird to me, and doesn't make much sense to me, for example can you go into a shop and buy 10 plain long swords which then makes your plain long sword better than a magical long sword? I would have preferred they just did it how Gothic 2 did it.

What is worth mentioning, is the fact that stacking your gear will upgrade it to be better than before, but requierment of your abilities to wield this weapon will also be risen. The question is will it be a linear increase or not? Id prefered to be non-linear; requirments should increase in a faster manner.